santa rosa >> A dry run of SMART commuter train service will likely start in June, with a full opening as soon as fall, rail officials said Wednesday.

The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit’s Rail Operations Center off Airport Boulevard in Santa Rosa was opened to the media Wednesday for a look-see at operations and to remind the public that safety is becoming a looming issue as trains fly up and down a track between Marin and Sonoma counties with testing underway.

All 14 trains have now arrived at the operations center, where they will be stored, maintained and repaired as needed. In the train shed, rails pass over a deep well, where workers have access to the undercarriage of the vehicles. Multiple tracks in the yard allow movement of the trains.

Outside of the center, signals and crossing arms are among the hardware being tested along the 43-mile route. Initial Marin stops as part of the $428 million first phase of the project include downtown San Rafael, the Marin Civic Center and stations in Novato at Hamilton and Atherton/San Marin. Funding for a Larkspur extension has been secured and could come online by 2017.

“There will be certain areas where we will be running 50 mph, 60 mph and our top speed will be 79 mph,” said Matt Stevens, SMART spokesman, of the testing. “Don’t stop on the tracks and obey all warnings.”

He noted trains running through the county will take getting used to and he asked the public to be alert.

“We haven’t had passenger trains operate in the North Bay in any meaningful way since 1958,” Stevens said.

Segments of track are being tested now and by June SMART should be ready to launch what it has dubbed “simulated revenue service.”

“That will look like an operating train system,” Stevens said. “We will operate on our schedule. We will be running all of our trains as though we were carrying passengers from Santa Rosa to downtown San Rafael. We will do that until all the bugs are out and solved.”

That is expected to take between one and three months. Once completed, SMART officials will look at starting service, likely by mid-fall, Stevens said.

In the meantime, safety is the word SMART will hit over and over.

Protective fencing has gone up along the track and drills have been held with local police and fire agencies to practice in the event of a collision with a car, said Jennifer Welch, SMART’s security manager. SMART has also gone into schools, driving home the safety issue, she noted.

There could be homeless people who set up along the tracks, and Welch is working to address that potential issue.

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“You can’t just go out and clear a homeless encampment, that is just not acceptable,” said Welsh, who is talking to local law enforcement as well as social service agencies about potential solutions.

The new rails are expected to provide a quiet ride, which also means less warning a train is coming. Rail lines of yesteryear were generally built on tracks that were 48 feet long, creating the familiar “clickity-clack” sound as train wheels hit joints.

The SMART trains, however, will run on longer stretches of continuous 1,600-foot sections of welded rail, resulting in less noise.

At 150,000 pounds, the trains need space and time to stop.

If people don’t mind safety, there will be consequences, Welch said.

“They don’t stop easily and they will injure and kill somebody,” she said.